Since my June month in review was pretty well received, I thought I’d do another one for July. Unfortunately, ESPN’s sortable stats don’t look like they include the July 31 games yet, so we’re actuallly looking at the month minus one day. And seeing as I’m off on a road trip to visit Great Amercian Ballpark and PNC this weekend, it was now or never for this column.

Overall
Heading into the All-Star break, the Tigers were looking not bad. The Tigers picked up their first home sweep of the season against the White Sox, and then limited the Red Sox to 9 runs in 3 games. For the first half of the month the Tigers were 6-6. Even the first game after the All-Star break was impressive as the Tigers broke their string of <10 run scoring outputs with a 10-9 win against Chicago. After that it was down hill. The Tigers closed out the month winning just 2 of the next 13, and the games weren't even close. Only 3 of those 11 losses were by fewer than 4 runs. Unfortunately the Tigers weren’t able to pull and trading deadline deals, due to a lack of valuable talent. Transactions
The biggest move was the trade of Adam Bernero for Ben Petrick. The Tigers traded from one of their strengths pitching, without even giving up a strong pitcher. Bernero has given up one run in 8 relief appearances for Colorado, while Petrick has struggled offensively for the Tigers.

There was also quite a bit of disabled list shuffling. Cody Ross was the beneficiary of Higginson’s DL stint. Unfortunately, he looked less than impressive in 4 games and was sent back to Toledo to make room for Danny Patterson. Also, in adding Patterson to the 40 man roster, they DFA’d David Espinosa (acquired in Mohler trade). When Higginson was ready to come off the disabled list, AJ Hinch took his place. Hinch has a groin injury and will eligible to come of the DL on August 3rd.

In the bullpen, Fernando Rodney and Steve Avery were demoted in favor Shane Loux and Eric Eckenstahler.

Offense
July was far and away the Tigers best offensive month. While they were still in the lower half of the league in most offensive categories, at least they weren’t dead last by a large margin. Most surprising was that the Tigers were tied for 5th in the in home runs with 28. Now granted, 15 of the Tigers 26 games were away from Comerica Park, but for a team struggling the Tigers have, it’s impressive. Part of this surge may be attributable to the the fact that Omar Infante and Brandon Inge had no at-bats in July, and part of it was just some better hitting. Kevin Witt was the month’s leading hitter at .329/.372/.517. Dmitri’ Young’s batting average dipped and was .262, but his power numbers were still strong with 7 homers and a .565 slugging percentage. Young also led the team in RBI for the month with 14. Alex Sanchez produced well at the top of the order hitting .319/.343/.447 and driving in 10 runs. Despite his decent hitting, he only scored 9 runs due to 6 caught stealings and some base running faux pas. Eric Munson struggled to get hits with a .206 batting average, but his plate discipline resulted in a team high 11 walks and a .313 OBA. He also contributed 5 home runs. Bobby Higginson has hit .500/.550/.813 in 5 games since coming off the disabled list. Even Ramon Santiago has managed to drive in 5 runs this month.

Pitching
The young pitching staff is struggling as the season progresses. Despite an impressive string of 6 games in which they allowed only 12 runs heading into the all-star break, the ERA for the month was 5.42. July saw the debut of Wil Ledezma as a starting pitcher. He didn’t allow a run in his first two starts, but then was hit hard. Matt Roney continues to pitch well at home, and struggle on the road. Nate Cornejo had a couple of very impressive outings against the White Sox. In one start he pitched 8 innings of shut out ball, and in another he took a no-hitter into the seventh (only to get the loss). The bright spot in the rotation was Jeremy Bonderman. While his ERA was 5.16 for the month, 7 of the 13 runs he allowed during the month came in one disastrous start against Boston. He rebounded his next time out and scattered 3 hits over 8 innings. The starter who struggled the most however was Mike Maroth. He had a 6.96 ERA and added 3 losses in his march towards 20 (he did also pick up 2 wins). Most disturbing are the following numbers: 9,11,12. Those are his home runs allowed, walks allowed, and strike outs. That’s an awful combination of “balls not in play.” In the bullpen Chris Mears had several strong outings closing games and July saw the return of Danny Patterson. Two of the Tigers potential trade candidates, Sparks and Walker, both struggled in July which limited their value.